Images compliments of Dennis Bradford and his handy iPhone photo skills.

In a world full of distinct personalities, it’s no surprise that every hot rod and classic out there seems to have at least a little bit of a unique touch. However, one doesn’t come across a rod like the one owned by Dennis Bradford of Vancouver, Washington very often. That’s why we couldn’t resist finding out more about this unique little hot rod and the man behind its madness.

Looking at this ride, one might conclude that it’s a unique custom creation spanning from the rat rod family, much like we assumed, but Bradford assured us that’s not the case at all. It’s just “not done,” he told us as he plans to paint the car soon. Other than that, this custom ride is ready to roll.

Dreamed up in Bradford’s head, the idea behind this hot rod was to create a vehicle where the engine completely overpowered the rest of the vehicle’s appearance. “Something cartoon like,” Bradford explained to us in a phone interview. Besides that, it was all about taking his ideas and bringing them to life, a passion which he exposes in all of his projects.

“It’s always a challenge to see if you can build them and how,” Bradford said, “Like putting your imagination to real life. That’s why this ride is how it is today.”

Built from a 1919 Dodge four-door touring car, Bradford’s custom rod is anything but factory. Chopped, ground, and perfectly manipulated – the result is a car like no other. Sporting all kinds of custom creations from the blower setup to the hand-built rear half, and continuing with the hand-built theme, you’ll also find a custom bench seating compartment and a custom gas tank out back.

Under The… Hood?

While we often talk about what’s under the hood of the custom creations we feature, well – we can’t exactly do that with this ride. That’s because the hood has alluded the discussion and rightfully so.

Making a statement between the front frame rails, you’ll find a boisterous 1948 Flathead Cadillac engine treated to some forced induction by way of a massive 471 supercharger.

On top of that, you’ll find three double-barrel carburetors, a custom blower system and manifold that Bradford and his buddy Colin from Imperial Speed & Custom in Washougal, Washington came up with. Bradford and his friend even handled the engine’s custom cast pulleys, headers and idler arm.

While we can certainly respect wanting to build massive parts of your car from scratch, it takes a lot of time, patience and know-how. The blower setup on the hot rod alone took seven months to complete, but the results were well worth it, as this component alone is Bradford’s favorite part of the entire hot rod.

Slapping It To The Street

Tying the vintage Cadi motor to the Hurst slicks out back is a stick shift out of a 1937 Cadillac LeSalle backed by an 8 ¾-inch Mopar rearend. As far as the suspension goes, the hot rod sports something rather basic with a Model A front axle and buggy springs up front and a triangulated 4-link with buggy springs out back, all tied to the hand-built frame.

Steel wheels make for a classic addition that doesn’t draw too much away from the car’s unique craftsmanship and also makes for an easy ride around town. Unfortunately, the Washington area is about as far as this puppy’s gotten since it only gets 7 to 8 miles to the gallon. Although, in it’s fairly sheltered life, the rod has already seen some Outlaw racing and 13-second quarter miles.

“It’s reliable as hell,” Bradford told us. “Very road worthy but not the most comfortable thing in the world.”

As we heard from another rodder in the past, sometimes you have to make sacrifices for your art, however, and a cushy ride is almost always worth the barter for a cool car.

Internal Beauty

Inside Bradford’s rod, you won’t find much as far as fancy offerings go. Nothing more than a couple of seats, some gauges and the open air is up for offer – but this makes sure the focus remains where it should be – on the engine.

While it’s slightly barren, the interior does offer a unique feature for those of us here in the States. Bradford’s car is right-hand drive for the simple reason of being different, a decision Bradford may have changed if he had to build the rod again.

“The hardest thing for a right-hand drive is to learn how to speed shift,” Bradford said. Although we admit, it would be quite interesting to see done!

 End Of An Era

Since the car was completed, a one and a half year build that was finished nearly five years ago, Bradford has enjoyed driving his rod around town and taking it to the beach a few hours from home. The only other thing left to do on the car is giving it a nice paint job – in gloss black to be exact.

“There are two things that real hot rods have,” Bradford told us. “They have three pedals and wear gloss black paint.” An ideal that we can’t argue with.

While Bradford has certainly enjoyed his creation, he’s once again getting the itch to do another build, so the rod has to go to open up some shop space and some extra green-backs. So if you know someone looking for one unique little hot rod, you now know where to send them.